Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program and the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment

In 2004, the Arctic Council released the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), which recommended that long-term Arctic biodiversity monitoring be expanded and enhanced in response to the global importance of the Arctic’s biodiversity, the increasing pressures on this biodiversity, and our limited capacity to monitor and understand changes that are occurring.

In its acceptance of the ACIA findings and projections, the Arctic Council directed two of its working groups—the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) Working Group and AMAP—to examine these findings and develop follow-up programmes and activities, both individually and jointly, to address key projections for the future of the Arctic.

A primary response of the CAFF Working Group was the implementation of the CBMP. The development of the CBMP as the cornerstone program of CAFF received Ministerial endorsement in both 2004 (Reykjavik Declaration) and 2006 (Salekhard Declaration). Iceland led the Program before Canada took over in April 2005. The CBMP was formally launched in September 2005 in cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme–World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) in Cambridge, England.

The CBMP is the primary vehicle through which CAFF will follow up on ACIA. It can also be used to promote Arctic information in global fora and reports, such as the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the Biodiversity Information Partnership, United Nations Millennium Development Goals, IPY, and the International Arctic Science Committee.